Local Police Response to Terrorism

This paper examines the measures and initiatives taken by local law enforcement organizations in the U.S. in response to increased terrorist attacks. It analyzes, and interprets information obtained from the studies conducted by other academic scholars on this topic, in addition to information sourced from the resources of a number of law enforcement organizations operating at the local level in the United States. This research established that the initiatives and measures taken by local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have been largely successful, but some of them are inappropriate and need to be abandoned or improved because they result in harm to some innocent groups of people in American society.

Local Police Response to Terrorism

Introduction

Local law enforcement organizations in the U.S. are facing a set of problems and issues that are becoming increasingly complex, with the emergence of threats against national security and criminal networks coordinated at the global level. Terrorism has become the most serious threat against national security that countries are facing today. With the emergence of radical Islamism, modern-day criminals are extending their terrorist activities across international boundaries. These terrorists have proven to be highly adaptive in their techniques of terrorism proliferation. Local police agencies remained with no option, but to upgrade their capabilities in order to be able to counter this new menace. They are coming up with new strategies that are just as networked and adaptive as those employed by the terrorists (Kayyem & Pangi, 2003).

OVERVIEW

Local police have come to the realization that time-tested approaches, which focus on prevention, are no longer effective at successfully meeting the complex new challenges that have arisen due to terrorism. It is now apparent that prevention approaches must be integrated with new ones focusing on prediction. Local law enforcement agencies have...